


The aftermath.

by Grimbeak



Series: Scorpion-crabs and bad parenting fuck everything up [2]
Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Amnesia, Arguing, Arguing about said lake, Conversations that should not be held over dinner are held over dinner, Fate & Destiny, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, I just keep putting Jay in bad situations and giving him parental figures don't I, Lakeside convos, Lloyd Garmadon Needs a Hug, Lloyd wants to pull a Harumi, M/M, Memory Loss, Multi, Other, Scars, Screw Destiny, Soup, Stop fucking up destiny says multiple divine forces, Therapy, aftermath of apparent character death, back at it again with the cliches, does this count as accidental identity theft, dumb gays, elemental powers, fucker basically melted his brain of course he ain't rememberin shit, gays being dumb, kind of, no says jay, not a lot of comfort yet, they all do
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-25
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-15 22:01:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29690592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Grimbeak/pseuds/Grimbeak
Summary: In which Lloyd thinks too much, divine forces say "fuck this" and fix things, and Lloyd also gets therapy.
Relationships: Cole & Zane & Kai & Pixal & Lloyd Garmadon & Nya, Cole/Kai/Jay Walker/Zane, Pixal & Lloyd Garmadon
Series: Scorpion-crabs and bad parenting fuck everything up [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2180064
Comments: 10
Kudos: 28





	1. The aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> am rly not sure how i managed to get this done today but apparently the motivation is back and i am feeling good

The next few months were the worst ones Lloyd had ever sat through.

Worse than knowing he’d have to defeat his father when he was barely ten years old, worse than being betrayed by Harumi, worse than having to defeat his father a second time, worse than getting betrayed by Harumi a second time, and… yeah. 

Overall he wasn’t having a good time. 

The Bounty was practically destroyed, Jay was gone, and three members of their team were mourning too much to do anything. 

This wasn’t like when Zane defeated the Overlord, or when Lloyd thought most of his friends had been killed by his father. Those times, there had been _hope_ , even if it took a while to find it.

Those times, they had been around other people, other things that could distract them. 

Now they were alone, on some unknown beach surrounded by cliffs and water, without even phone service. 

Wu and Misako were elsewhere, so the team couldn’t use their ‘old people wisdom.’ Not like they would’ve been much help, anyway. 

...They were fucked. 

“Lloyd?” Nya’s voice shook him out of his thoughts, and he glanced up to see her almost hanging from a stray board. “Can you pass me the screwdriver?” 

Lloyd, being distracted and also having no experience whatsoever with tools, handed her a wrench.

Without saying anything, she just gave him a Look™ before swinging down herself and grabbing the appropriate tool. She paused, before saying, “Maybe you should go check on the guys? I haven’t seen them yet today.” 

“...Yeah,” Lloyd mumbled. “Yeah, I’ll go check on them.” 

He didn’t go check on them. He had been ‘checking on them’ for weeks now. They were always the same- Kai pretended nothing was wrong, and snapped at anybody who brought it up. Zane was quiet, often going days without talking to anyone and just hiding in his room. Cole was stoic, pushing himself to do literally anything but something useful. Or, at least, nothing directly helpful. He didn’t help with repairing the bounty, but he would chop down trees for wood, or he would fixate on something not useful at all, such as reading the entire day. 

None of them had cried yet. At least, not in front of anyone else.

This wasn’t like when they had lost Zane. Zane sacrificing himself was for something big, for the sake of the whole city.

This wasn’t. This was because of a stupid accident, because a stupid crab monster had fallen off the stupid cliff onto the stupid deck. 

There was no reason for Jay to be dead, but he was.

Zane had scanned the entire lake for traces of bodies. Nothing. Nya had controlled the water, pulling anything dead towards her. All they got was a bunch of dead fish and a scorpion-crab missing its shell.

Jay was gone and there wasn’t even a body to bury. 

He could’ve escaped, Nya had said hopefully. Gotten stuck somewhere and trying to find his way back to us. 

Zane had run a scan on the remaining traces of lightning in the water. Enough to fry a person alive, make their body unrecognizable. Even an experienced master of lightning wouldn’t have survived. 

Jay had died in agony for nothing.

The cliffs were sheer enough that no one could climb them, and they couldn’t fly away on their dragons- Pixal wouldn’t be able to come unless someone helped her, since her Samurai X suit had been destroyed, and nindroids were heavy, even for magical dragons. Zane would find it hard enough to get up to the clifftop on his own. 

Plus, Nya refused to leave the Bounty- “We’ve lost it enough times,” she had said. “I’m not losing it again.” 

Lloyd stepped outside to sit on a rock next to the lake. The sun was setting, a mix of pink and orange surrounding the hot ball of fire. 

He threw a stone, not even trying to skip it. It didn’t skip, as stones tend to do when you don’t try (or even when you do) to skip them. It hit the water and sank.

The ripples came closer and closer towards Lloyd, and when they finally hit the shore, someone spoke. “I thought Nya said you were going to go check on the others?”

Lloyd swore, nearly falling off his rock in surprise. He focused on Pixal’s small smile, and relaxed slightly, heart still beating unfairly fast. “God, Pix. You can’t sneak up on people like that!” 

She smirked. “Sorry.” She plopped down on a rock near him, and joined him in staring at the water. “What are you doing out here?” 

Lloyd shrugged. “Dunno. Just… thinking.”

Pixal nodded, not saying anything, though her smile dimmed a bit. The pair were silent for a while, until she added, “You’re allowed to be sad, you know.”

“What?” Lloyd jerked his head to look at her. “I- I _know_ that.” He took in a shaky breath, returning to stare at the water. “I’m just… not the type to be super upset.” 

They both knew he was lying.

Pixal sighed, eventually, throwing her own stone. That one skipped, even though it was only twice. “This lake doesn’t make any sense,”

“What?”

“The- the lake. Ocean. Thing. It doesn’t make any sense! I mean, it’s a lake that leads into an ocean. And-” she dropped down, scooping up a bit of water in her palm and sipping at it- “this is freshwater. The ocean is saltwater- I checked earlier to make sure. There’s a point-” and she pointed to it, then, a place where the lake opened out into the ocean- “where the waters just split. No saltwater in the lake, no freshwater in the ocean. Perfectly split, it makes zero sense!” 

Lloyd listened to her rant for a while, probably adding in some math and science terms that he couldn't understand because he never really got a proper schooling. 

Finally, she stopped to take a breath, and that’s when Lloyd interrupted her. “You’re allowed to be sad too.”

She paused to look at him. “What?”

“You’re allowed to be sad about Jay not being here- you’re distracting yourself with the lake. You told me it’s ok to be sad, and you’re ignoring your own advice.” 

She stared at him. “How did you-”

“See? I listen to your therapy lessons after all.” 

Pixal smiled at that. “They’re not therapy lessons,” she corrected after a moment, “it’s just therapy.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” He moved over to sit on her rock with her. “How ‘bout we agree to be sad together?”

She smiled, pulling him for a hug. “That sounds fine.”

***

_Two months prior_

_The First Spinjitzu Master’s spirit flowed about the world, searching._

_The balance was off._

_They found the boy, sinking in the water. Heart still and eyes closed._

_“This isn’t right,” they murmured to themself, pressing their hands to the boy’s back. “Let’s get you fixed up, little one.”_

_The child’s back glowed, and his heart was beating again._

_And the Master sent the student on his way._

***

There had been a lightning storm the night Jay died.

No rain, just lightning and clouds dark enough to block out the sun.

When they had Zane’s funeral, it had started snowing. Lloyd guessed that whenever an elemental master died, their element paid one last tribute to them.

Made him wonder what would happen when he passed. 

With Kai’s, it would probably be a fire. Nya’s, a flood. Cole would probably have earthquakes, but Lloyd…

Lloyd didn’t know what he would have.

Maybe everything would just be… really bright? Or green? Hopefully the sun wouldn’t explode, ‘cause that would be- “Lloyd!”

He blinked. Nya was staring at him, holding out a bowl of soup. “You ok?”

“I-” he shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. “Yeah, I’m fine, don’t worry.” He took the bowl, sitting down on a stump and staring into the fire. 

Nya stared at him for a minute, before shaking her head and settling down to eat. 

Lloyd glanced around the circle. Pixal and Zane were eating quietly together, while Kai seemed to be attempting to inhale his food as fast as possible. Cole just seemed generally uncomfortable. 

“So,” Nya said eventually, “how was everyone’s day?” 

Cole automatically said “Fine” at the same time that Kai said “Shitty”, and they both fell silent.

Zane said nothing, only picking at his soup. Pixa squeezed his shoulder.

Lloyd cleared his throat after a second, setting his bowl down. “I need to tell you guys something, and… I’m not sure if you’ll like it.” 

“Probably won’t, if it’s one of your plans,” Kai muttered under his breath, and his sister shot him a look. 

“It’s not a plan,” Lloyd said, ignoring the way his friend’s comment stung, “I’m… I’m leaving.” 

“You’re _what_?!” 

“Leaving? What do you mean, _leaving.”_

“And where would you be going?”

Before anyone could blurt anything else out, Zane slammed his bowl down in front of him. “ _No._ I’m _not_ losing anyone else.” 

Silence. 

There was nothing but silence. 

Kai and Cole unconsciously scooted closer to their boyfriend on the log, pressing against his sides in an attempt to comfort him.

Lloyd tried to ignore the way Zane’s hands were shaking when the green ninja spoke again. “It’s not- I’m not leaving forever, just- just for a little bit.” He glanced at Pixal’s worried face. “I want to go try to find a way to resurrect Jay.”

“You want to _what?”_ It came from Cole, this time, a surprisingly angry look on his face. “You _can’t_ do that. Don’t you remember what happened last time, with Harumi and your dad?” 

Lloyd winced at the memory. “Yeah, I do, but this time-”

“What is wrong with you?” Kai’s voice cut him off, the fire ninja jumping up to stare in disbelief at his boyfriend. “We have a way to bring Jay back, and you _refuse?_ The hell's wrong with you, didn’t you love him?!” 

“ _Don’t_ .” Cole’s voice was thunderous as he stood up, fists clenched in rage. “Don’t you fucking _dare_ say that to me.” He stepped forward until he and Kai were nose-to-forehead. “Just because I’m right that it’s too dangerous, you don’t need to be a shithead-”

“Guys-” Lloyd was cut off by Kai, spitting out another thing that he probably would’ve heard if Nya hadn’t covered his ears. “Guys, you need to-” they were ignoring him, he swore it- “Can you just-” neither of them were _listening_ , they needed to listen- “GUYS!” Lloyd shot a blast of green energy into the sky, which erupted in fireworks, caused the pair to stop arguing, and made Nya step back and stop covering Lloyd’s ears. “Can you just listen to me for five frickin’ seconds? _Please?_ ” 

The boys, surprisingly, immediately sat down on opposite sides of Zane then looked annoyed at themselves for doing so. Before either of them could protest, Lloyd spoke again. “Look. Kai, Cole. Cole’s right- it is dangerous. But Harumi worded it so that _Lord_ Garmadon came back, and only his worst qualities. If I word it in a way that gets Jay, our Jay back, then… not dangerous at all.” He hesitated. “Though we don’t have the masks anymore, and the summoning circle is a no-go. So, I was gonna go find my mom and see if she has any ideas. She is an archeologist, after all. Probably has some idea of what to do.”

“Yeah,” Kai said eventually, “that’s… a good idea. But you’re not going alone,” he added after a moment. “Too dangerous. I’ll come with yo-”

“Nope,” Pixal said, standing up and gently pushing the fire ninja back down. “You are staying here with Zane and Cole. They still need you.” Kai glared at Cole, but allowed the nindroid to push him down and said nothing in return. Pixal turned to Lloyd. “I will accompany you.”

“You- what?!” The green ninja sputtered for a moment before regaining the skill to join actual words together, something that all his teammates seemed to lose every once in a while. “What do you mean?”

The nindroid rolled her eyes, stepping towards him. “I _mean_ , I’m coming with you. These three-” she gestured towards the boyfriend trio sitting on a log, two of them glaring at each other and the center one silent- “need each other, even though they don’t realize it right now. Also I am your literal therapist and would not like to be far from you in case you need me.” She turned to Nya. “Will you be alright handling them on your own? Would you like to come with us?”

The master of water hesitated for a moment, before shaking her head. “Nah. I think I’m needed here- I also need to work on fixing the bounty, after all.” Looking at Pixal, she added, “I’ll see if I can fix up something for you- might not be the Samurai X suit, but it’ll be close.”

Pixal smiled, stepping forward to give her friend a quick hug before stepping back and looking at Lloyd. “Ready to go?” 

“Wha- now?” 

She smiled, kicking out his bag from behind the stump. “You were planning to leave anyway, even if they said no.”

“I-” Lloyd trailed off, realizing that arguing was pointless. It always is, with nindroids, although you do have to try at _least_ once for the fun of it. “Fine. Yes, I was gonna go anyway. But they said yes, and now you’re coming, so…” He hesitated. “I need a few minutes to get stuff for the both of us.” 

“Lloyd. I am a nindroid. I can eat, but I do not need food. I do not like it that much, actually. I was not made with any… taste buds.”

“Oh. But what about-” Lloyd glanced over at Kai, who seemed confused at the fact that there was more soup in his bowl than before. “Oh.” He looked back at Pixal, who was smiling faintly. “So… let’s go, then?”

“Yes.” She paused. “But will your dragon be able to hold me? I am a nindroid, after all.”

“Don’t worry-” Lloyd patted his own side to make it seem as if he was patting his dragon, but he really just looked stupid- “I’m the green ninja, after all. My dragon can carry anything!” 

“Alright. Shall we go, then?”

“We shall.” 

***

Thirty minutes later, after Nya had _finally_ stopped momming them and actually allowed them to go with about thirty pounds more food than before, Lloyd and Pixal were flying up the cliff, doing their best to hold on as the dragon fought against the wind pushing them downwards. 

Lloyd braced himself as the dragon finally reached the top of the cliff, the wind suddenly cutting off as they landed on a field of grass. The sky was dark, a half-moon at their backs and stars lighting up the sky. Way too many stars for Lloyd to count, though everyone said that. 

“The stars are beautiful,” Pixal said in wonder, as if she had been reading Lloyd’s mind. “If we didn’t need to get moving immediately, I could look at them for hours.”

Lloyd hesitated, adjusting his bag on his shoulder so he wouldn’t wake up tomorrow with a bruise. “We can look at them as we walk,” he suggested, and Pixal smiled at him. “Alright then.” He started moving after dissipating his dragon, one eye up at the sky and the other looking forward (Jay had always found it really creepy that he could do that). “Off to look for a way to bring back our dead friend, a totally PG-13 adventure.”

Pixal hit him with a stick.

***

_Two months prior_

_The First Spinjitzu Master watched as the boy floated up to the shore._

_An old man would be heading there soon, looking to fish and instead finding a child, half-dead and scarred._

_This was not what the First Spinjitzu Master had planned, but they did not mind. A familiar force was dealing with the boy now, a kind force._

_After all, the boy’s destiny had been messed with. While the First Spinjitzu Master had sent him on his way, they didn’t control destiny. However, someone else did._

_The First Spinjitzu Master floated away, content._

_The new lightning master would be fine, for now._


	2. The aftermath, part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get back to [UNKNOWN NAME] as he struggles with the hard problems of life, such as allergies and being social.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is from Jay's pov. Just, uh, wanted to make that clear before we go forward.

_Two months prior_

The sand was especially annoying.

This beach sucked.

***

He was tired, and his head hurt. Actually, his whole body hurt, but he didn’t think about that too hard otherwise-

Ow. There’s the head.

***

He was pretty sure he was getting a sunburn. He hoped not, that would suck. 

***

There was sand in his mouth.

He coughed, spitting up sand and blood and who knows what else, quakes wracking his body and causing agonizing pain to spread through him again.

He passed out. 

***

He was being carried.

Careful, weathered hands rubbing against his skin as he was gently picked up and taken to somewhere. 

Each step the person took made him hurt.

Oh-

Time to sleep again.

***

“-found him on the beach-”

“-Hash, where are the banda-”

“-scars all over him, god-”

“-can’t get them off-”

“-actically a hole in his chest-” 

***

The next time he woke up, it was completely. 

His arms were stiff, covered in some thick, kind of scratchy material. His head still hurt, though the pain has lessened, and he was able to open his eyes without staring directly at the sun. 

He did, and he was looking at a ceiling. Nice. 

He carefully tilted his head up, resting it against the pillow in a slightly higher position so he could glance down at his body.

Practically his entire chest was covered in bandages, a spot near his heart extra padded. His legs ached, though he couldn’t see them because of the pants he had on. 

He tried to sit up, and that’s when he threw up.

Or, rather, _attempted_ to throw up. What he actually ended up doing was coughing up a lot of spit, blood, and a bit of water as well. 

Luckily, he managed to do it in the bucket that was conveniently placed next to him. 

He coughed, chest heaving and body shaking, and _ow_ his back hurt like hell. He gripped the bucket’s edge in an attempt to stay steady, gasping for breath and wishing that the pain would go away.

A hand touched his, making him jump. He glanced over at the woman who was standing next to his bed- only her head and shoulders were visible, suggesting that he was on the top bunk of a bunk bed. 

She smiled gently at him, carefully taking the bucket and using her other hand to push him back down onto the sheets. “Get some rest, dear. You need it.”

He allowed her to lay him back down, and barely a few seconds after his head hit the pillow, his eyes closed and he was gone again.

***

The next _next_ time he woke up, it was actually completely. His eyes actually opened immediately (even though literally no one does that), he didn’t throw up after sitting up, and he was able to form mostly coherent thoughts. Such as wondering why there was an old man staring at him.

“Hello,” the man said.

“Hi,” is what the boy attempted to say, except after getting half a sound out he realized that, in fact, his throat was very dry and now he couldn’t stop coughing. Fun. 

The old man, saying nothing else, handed the boy a glass of water. He took it, shakily, managing to somehow not spill any on his bandages and only a bit on his chin. He gulped it down, which would turn out to be a very bad idea later, as he apparently didn’t hear the chided warning to just sip it. He was too busy inhaling the water. Not literally, though, that would suck. 

He handed the glass back after a few moments, wiping his mouth with an un-bandaged piece of his hand. “Thanks,” he managed, voice still raspy from his coughing. 

The old man smiled at him, patting the ladder next to the bunk bed. “You wanna get down, stretch your legs a little?”

The boy hesitated- his legs were still kind of hurting, though the pain had lessened. Despite that, he nodded. “Sure.” 

He sort of… crawled-rolled over to the area where the ladder was propped up. The old man didn’t help him down, but he did have a supporting hand on his shoulder, which was nice. The boy grabbed his arm to steady himself when he reached the ground again, and the man said nothing, only putting an arm around him to keep him upright. 

The boy felt a sort of… anxiety as he was being led out of the room, almost like there was something wrong, like something was missing. But it was nothing he couldn’t handle. 

Probably. 

The hallway they were in opened up into a kitchen. The man sat him down at the table before wandering off elsewhere, leaving the boy alone.

He drummed his fingers on the table out of boredom, picking at his damaged nails. 

He glanced down at himself, eyes widening at the number of scars he could see.

They were… fresh, he could tell that, still pink and red and the ones on his upper arms tingled a little. They were kind of like snowflake patterns, almost. 

The tingling feeling grew a bit, and he scanned his arms to find the source. When he did, he frowned.

Two metal bands wrapped tightly around his arms- not enough to cut off the circulation, just enough that they clearly couldn’t be taken off without damaging his skin. There were faint scratch marks on them- someone clearly had tried to break them off, maybe with a knife. 

He touched them- they tingled a bit more, and when he pressed down on them he stifled a noise of pain as a sudden ache shot through his arm.

He didn’t touch anything until someone spoke, making him jump. “Do you want some more water?” 

“What?”

“Water, dear. Do you want it?” 

He paused for a second, the brown-haired old woman watching him expectantly. “...Sure, I guess.” 

She nodded, moving farther into the kitchen to grab another glass from the cabinet to fill with water. As she was filling it, she looked back at him. “How are you feeling?”

“Kind of sore. Like, everywhere. And tired. And- and confused. Who are you?”

She smiled. “Knew we’d get to that eventually. Of course you’re sore, you have lichtenberg scars pretty much everywhere on your body. They’re fresh, too- you probably only got them a day or two ago. And those arm bands… we can’t get them off.” She sighed, picking a bit of fuzz off her shirt. “Any idea what they are?”

“Nope.”

“Hm. Anyway… my name’s Malah. Yours?” 

The boy hesitated, something settling in his chest. “I don’t know.”

The woman didn’t seem to be perturbed, as she only let out a sigh before handing him his water. “Understandable. That much lightning… yeah. I can see how you’d lose your memories. Unless you just forgot your name?” 

A pause. 

That was the thing he felt was missing.

His silence told Malah everything. She sighed again, patting him on the shoulder and plopping down next to him on another chair. “That sucks, kid. Well, you can stay here until you remember things- the village isn’t too bad, I’m sure you’ll make some friends…” she trailed off, falling silent. 

The boy nodded absently, taking a sip of his water. 

Something flashed across his mind- a streak of white, frost reaching up his arm, the faint taste of metal in his mouth… 

“Zane,” he said suddenly.

Malah looked up. “What? Is that your name?”

The boy hesitated, then shook his head. It was a familiar name, though. “No. But it’s what you can call me.”

***

The next next _next_ time Zane woke up, he was significantly less sore, but still vaguely tired and confused, as one always is when they wake up at 5 in the morning with amnesia. 

Also less nauseous, which was good considering he had thrown up again the night before, because apparently chugging water when dehydrated wasn’t the best idea. 

When he had finally gotten down from the top bunk and made his way into the kitchen, his new self-proclaimed grandparents were waiting for him. Malah gave him a nod and went back to scrambling her eggs, while Hash (that was apparently the old man’s name) smiled at him and offered him toast and juice.

Zane accepted them, sitting down carefully at the table to eat.

(He had managed to shrug an outfit on before going into the kitchen- there had been a pile of clothes waiting for him.) 

The trio were silent for a few minutes, until Hash cleared his throat. “So, Zane. I was thinking I could show you around today? Have you meet some other people around the village, get to know the place…” 

Zane gulped down the last bit of his juice before answering. “Sure. That’d… that’d be nice.” 

Hash nodded, smiling (he did that a lot), squeezing Zane on an un-damaged part of his arm before leaving the room again, likely to grab his glasses. Malah had said something about him always forgetting them in the morning. 

Around twenty minutes later, when the three had finished eating, Zane and Hash headed out with a promise to Malah that they would buy the vegetables she had ordered them to get. 

Outside of the house was dusty, the ground covered in dirt mixed with… dust. Yeah. 

Some sand, too, probably, but it was too orange for Zane to tell.

There were houses across the street and next to Malah’s house (she had made it clear that _she_ owned it, Hash just stayed there because they were married and he cooked well), like any village. Buildings at the end of the street that he couldn’t really see that well, but Hash moved him along before he could get a closer look. 

“That’s Ms. Nelda’s house,” Hash said, pointing to the one two houses down from the house across the street from Malah’s. “She has a chicken coop- not many animals in this village, apart from a few stray cats and the fish in the lake.”

An old woman appeared in the window, waved, and then vanished again.

As the pair walked, they encountered at least a dozen and a half more old people- Hash addressed them all by name, while Zane attempted to at least remember one of them. There were around twelve little kids running around, too, ages running between nine and four. Their leader seemed to be a six-year-old boy, with whitish-blond hair and dark clothes. 

“He’s looking at me,” Zane whispered to Hash. The six-year-old was staring at him, wide-eyed. 

“He wants food,” Hash muttered back, slipping him a piece of bread. 

Zane didn’t ask where he got it, just thrust it out at the child who immediately grabbed it and ran off so fast Zane wasn’t entirely sure he was there in the first place. 

“...Children are scary,” he muttered.

Hash clapped him on the shoulder. “Yes,” he announced grandly. “Yes, they are.” 

***

“That’s Glenda,” said Hash, gesturing to an old gray-haired woman. “She has a gun.” 

Glenda pointed the pistol up in the air, and walked away.

“We don’t talk about her.” 

*** 

After multiple other semi-terrifying experiences involving Zane finding out he was apparently mildly allergic to cats (“No I’m not,” he insisted as he pet the animal, eyes bright red and nose stuffy.), more scary children, and a weird amount of old people calling him “Sandy” (“We found you on the beach,” Hash said. “Covered in sand. Just your nickname now, I suppose.”), the pair headed back, but stopped at a stand in front of a store to buy the vegetables Malah wanted.

“You know,” said Hash, as he was gingerly examining a cucumber, “you’re not too bad of a kid, you know that?”

“...Thanks, I think.” 

Hash laughed, ruffling up Zane’s hair and stuffing a few other vegetables in a bag. “Anything else you desperately need to know about this place before we get home?”

Zane frowned as they started to walk back home. “Two things, actually. First, what’s the village called?”

“Shǎndiàn village,” Hash answered. “It means lightning.”

Zane nodded, thinking. “Hm. And, one last thing.” He gestured around, pointing vaguely at the other houses. “Where are all the middle-aged people? I mean, I’ve seen a lot of kids and guys… your age, but not that many young adults. ...Now that I think about it, I haven’t seen any teenagers, either. Where are they?”

Hash considered his answer for a moment, clearly thinking of a way he could answer without freaking anyone out. “They left,” he said eventually, not giving any other answer and instead walking in silence towards Malah’s house.

Zane followed him, feeling as though if he asked anything else he wouldn’t be given an answer.

***

Dinner was more lively that night, with a neighbor having brought over some food so Hash didn’t have to cook on such short notice. 

Zane sat at the table, attempting to appear like he was bonding with the old woman who liked to ask too many questions, and internally feeling really uncomfortable and close to screaming because apparently he did not like close contact with people he didn’t know that much. 

Malah and Hash weren’t that bad, seeing as though they seemed to accept his memory loss immediately and not treat him any differently than a normal kid would be treated. 

The old woman only left when she asked about the bands on Zane’s arms (they were visible through the shirt), and Malah decided that it would be a good time for her to leave. Except she said that in a polite way, instead of what she likely wanted to do, which was probably hit the woman over the head with a pan.

Zane didn’t think Malah liked to socialize much. 

It was when they were eating dessert that something hit him.

He was just wondering about the very likely possibility of nausea he would have tomorrow, as Malah seemed insistent on cramming every possible food thing down his throat because he “Looked skinny”, when something was made clear. 

Ew. That sounded religious.

Anyway.

“Jay,” he said suddenly. “My name’s Jay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here we are again. Next chapter will either switch back to the ninja's pov or we'll head over to Lloyd&Pixal for a bit. Anyone got anything specific they want to see with any of those guys?
> 
> Comments are appreciated.

**Author's Note:**

> I wonder how Zane's feeling after that argument :D
> 
> eh, he'll be fine... probably
> 
> canon give us more lloyd n pixal interactions. also give lloyd therapy you cowards 
> 
> Once again, comments are appreciated. I doubt I'll be able to get the next chapter done in one day like I did yesterday and today since I have two classes tomorrow. So, please be patient. See ya!


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